Graduation!

Well, I feel a little older today. Hubby and I have six grandchildren, all boys. The oldest is 18 and just graduated from high school Fri. night. It doesn’t seem like he should be old enough, but time marches on, I suppose.

  

He went to school in Jeff City, so Hubby and I made the trek to see the graduation ceremony. It was held outside in their new stadium. We went early to get good seats but unfortunately a lot of other people did too! However we did get some pretty good seats. Even though they were about half-way up the bleachers, we were almost right in front of the podium that had been set up on the field.

 

It was hot with the sun shining. It beamed down on us for a good 45 minutes until it got low enough to be behind trees. The ceremony didn’t start until 8 pm, so by then it was cooling off enough to be bearable. I felt sorry for all the graduates having to wear those long gowns. But they’re kids. And kids can seem to deal with the weather a lot better than adults. I felt the most sorry for dear Hubby. He had to sit in the sun on those hard bleachers for over three hours! He didn’t complain, but I know he was ready to get out of there! 

They had several speakers, and one of them was our state’s first lady. She had a nice speech. A nice, L O N G speech. It was close to nine when they finally started the graduates coming forward for their diplomas. There’s only one public high school in Jeff City, so there were 591 graduates to call forward one by one! Of course they were lined up ready to go up onto the platform, so it proceeded slowly but steadily.

        

The graduates were called alphabetically. Our grandson’s last name starts with a “W”, so he was one of the last one’s to be called. In a way, that was good because we could keep track of him in the sea of red robes. On the other hand, we had to wait soooo long. As the graduates got closer to the end, the relatives and friends started leaving. We were able to get down a little closer to make pic taking a little easier. As the graduates got their name called, parts of the audience screamed and shouted. So when it was Grandson’s turn, we all stood and shouted too. We were hoping that he would hear us and look our way. But it didn’t happen. He did a little dance when he got on the podium, however. At first I thought it was because he heard us and was reacting. But his brother told me that he dared him to do that. Later, he told his younger brother that he will expect him to do that when it’s his big G day!

I’m very proud of Grandson #1 for getting this far. Only five more graduations to go!